Just wondering if anybody on here models Hawaiian sugarcane railroads? Seems like a very interesting and different prototype and a prime candidate for On30 scale.
Here’s a good start: The Sugar Cane Railway Modelling SIG
There was a vendor at the National Train Show in Sacramento (2011) that had Sugar Cane railway locos and cars in On30 and HOn30, but the name escapes me.
i remember there being an article in a Trains magazine quite a few years ago about Cuban sugarcane railroads if I’m not mistaken… it was very interesting, I can remember reading it quite a few times
There is a very colorful Porter in the PRR museum at Stradsburg PA. that worked on a sugar cane farm. Would be a great project in On30 scale.
30-inch gauge railroads were more common in Hawaii than folks realize. Mostly these were sugar cane railroads, as you noted. The actual operations of “pure” sugar cane railroads may not be all that modelgenic, as they primarily consisted of hauling cut cane to the mill and empty cars back to the fields.
But two of the “common carrier” railroads on the island of Kauai were also 30-inch gauge, the Kauai Railway and the Ahukini Terminal and Railway (which did not connect with each other)
So it’s easy to imagine a railroad with a bit more variety in traffic that operates on 30 inch gauge. I hope that I’ll be doing just that for my future freelanced On30 layout (after the N scale gets built).
If you look beyond the cane itself, you can include an interesting variety of traffic, including refined sugar to the docks, pineapples (and inbound cans to hold them), guano, gravel, gasoline, and all the general merchandise inbound from the docks. Not to mention passengers.
Nearly everything passes through the docks on an island, of course, so that’s something I’d want to include, myself.
Although the Oahu Railway was 3-foot-gauge, it’s an interesting example of big-time railroading in narrow gauge in Hawaii. You can adapt a bit of this to your own 30-inch gauge line for more interest.
Byron
GP-9Man
I am researching this topic right now for a layout that is probably to far in the future to think about, but I am having fun doing it. I am interested in modeling the Oahu Railway and Land Co., so my advice may be a little one sided. As others have mentioned there were many railroads in Hawaii, both standard and narrow gauge, so I will dispense with trying to name them all.
FWIW, I would look it to these references.
Book, Next Stop Honolulu by Jim Chiddix and MacKinnon Simpson
Trains magazine featured the OR&LC in the March 1947 (IIRC) issue, Kalmbach will photocopy the article for you for a price.
There is an out of print book I am trying to get my hands on called Railroads in Hawaii, maybe you have deeper pockets then me and can afford a copy listed on ebay.
You might also look into the Hawaiian railway society for references, BTW you can go to Honolulu and ride what is left of the QR&LC here http://hawaiianrailway.com/.
There is a lot to model here and has a wide variety of interesting subjects from the Dole canning plant, to sugar plantations and factories, passenger service, military service during WW2 and more.
Enjoy,
Sean
You might find my HOn3 Oahu Railway design article in Model Railroad Planning 2008 useful. It’s for three unconnected decks in a roughly 12’X12’ space: Honolulu; the Wahiawa Branch; and Kaena Point.
I wonder if you mean Railroads of Hawaii: Narrow and standard gauge common carriers by Gerald M. Best {Golden West Books, 1978]
You may be able to borrow this book through inter-library loan at your local city or county library. I did and it was worthwhile.
By the way, this link has a little more on the 30" gauge cane railroads on Kauai
Byron
Check out our January 2012 issue for a visit to Joseph Kreiss’s HO scale Big Island Rail layout.
He’s also got a website. http://www.bigislandrail.zoomshare.com/
Incidentally, there was a standard gauge railroad on the big island called the Hawaii Consolidated Railroad. It went out of business in 1946 as a result of a major tsunami.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Consolidated_Railway
http://www.thetrainmuseum.com/history.html
http://www.silverstatespecialties.com/Reference/Trains/LaupahoehoeTM/LaupahoehoeTM_004.shtml
Andre
That’s easy for you to say… you HAVE your copy already! [:D]
Ditto.
Also, Ward Kimball had a restored Porter locomotive, he refers to it as a plantation locomotive from Hawaii. It can be seen in is interview with Tom Snyder on the Tomorrow Show. Here is a like to part one of the video on YouTube. The locomotive is shown in part 3 or 4 I think, the whole thing is worth watching IMHO.
Enjoy,
Sean
Some excellent books by J. C. Conde. Unfortunately out of print and expensive to buy if you find them:
Sugar Trains, Sugar Trains Pictorial, Narrow Gauge in a Kingdom, Fowler Lpcomatives in Kingdom
More recent and probably easier to find: Hawaiian Railway Album WWII Photographs by Victor Norton Jr. written by Gale E. Treiber . There are at least 4 volumns each with approx 56 pages of high quality photographs…
Try checking estate sales. Sometimes you get lucky, and a train nut doesn’t have a relative who wants his silly train books. My wife scored me a copy of J.W. Swanberg’s New Haven Power for $30 (autographed by the author), when on-line folks were asking $250.
my layout plan includes a depiction of the Aguirre, Puerto Rico sugar operations company town in the 50’s (now closed). I have visited the Puunene sugar operations in Mauai last year and this May plan to visit Kauai cane ops. The Australian Cane SIG mentioned below is excellent plus Mr Weiss Big Island RR is great work. Happy modeling!!